We've always used a fan heater but just considering getting a small oil filled radiator as lower wattage. What experiences have people had please? Does it take the chill off? Would only be in our small 4 man tent.
------------- May/June - Spring Valley
Aug/Sept - Leekworth
If we want heat overnight in our caravan, we use a small electric convector heater. It was cheap and it does the job nicely. We have a fitted gas heater which works well, but we don't like leaving it on while we are asleep, and if we are paying for EHU anyway, why not use it?
Used a small one in our campervan . Needed to be close to it to get any heat, only 750 W. It wasn’t expensive, so maybe spend a decent amount to get a decent branded heater.
We have a Delonghi Nano, which is the updated version of the Bambino. It's quiet heavy, and a little bulky, but has rounded fins & is totally silent.
Worked very well in our little four berth tent to keep the chill off overnight :)
A lot depends on how large your tent is and how cold the weather is...and how many people are sharing it giving off body heat.
I camp solo and when I first started using electric I had a small 4 man dome tent and used a convector heater. It was fine. However, I progressed to a larger tunnel tent and went camping in sub zero temperatures one winter and I just couldn't get the tent warm with a convector heater. The heat given off just wasn't enough to heat a big tent full of freezing cold air. I was saved by a friend who lent me a gas heater (yes, not ideal in a tent) and the gas heater plus the convector heater together eventually warmed the tent up. I then dispensed with the gas heater and managed to keep the tent warm with the convector, but it was that initial warming that proved to be the problem.
After that I bought a fan heater and never looked back, the reason being that a fan heater sucks in cold air and blows it out as hot air, thus it heats a large area in quick time. It then continues to suck in the air which is now warmer and blows it out even hotter.
A convector heater or a radiator relies totally on heating the air that immediately surrounds it and circulates it simply because hot air rises and the colder air is drawn in from ground level. That is fine in a small tent or an insulated caravan but where there is a large mass of cold air to be heated it is not sufficient. In a large tent on a freezing cold night the circulation of warmed air is so slow that it battles with the cold air and takes ages to get the tent warm, if it ever achieves it at all.
Nothing wrong with a fan heater except the noise. That's why we took ours out and bought a convector heater, which is just as effective at heating the van, but completely silent. Our convector is 2kw on full, but we always use it on the 1kw setting. It's thermostatically controlled, and maintains a decent temperature. We can leave it on overnight with no fan noise to keep us awake.
We used an oil heater in the FC for several years ... was excellent ... just left on all the time ... low power use, no noise through the night, and no risk of overheating ... could be left on, safely, all day, even when we were out ...
We have a gas heater in our camping car but as others have said we're reluctant to leave it on when sleeping. Tried fan heaters but they made too much noise and never delivered an overall warmth. Last year we used an oil filled radiator on the 1kw setting and found we were comfortable. Quiet, thermostatically controlled, on wheels so easy to move. Found temperatures were more constant than with the fan heater as being oil filled it kept some residual heat between being switched on/off by the thermostat. Can't vouch for how they would work in a tent.
I've used a £9.99 oil filled rad for the last 4 years & wouldn't be without it in the colder weather. Tried a fan heater but the noise drove me mad. I only use gas when not on site ( quite a lot these days ) but wouldn't leave it on at night.
Quote: Originally posted by TraceyD on 29/6/2018
It's funny, the noise doesn't actually bother me. We have a thermostat on ours and it just clicks on and off through the night if needed.
My fan heater occasionally wakes me when it clicks on but even if it doesn't actually wake me up, I sometimes wake in the morning not feeling as if I slept very well which could be due to the fan heater noise.
I now keep it within arms reach of my bed and once cosy inside my sleeping bag I reach out and turn the thermostat right down. It will only click on then if the temperature falls really low. If I need to get out during the night, I reach out first and turn the thermostat up so the heater comes on, then get out